In the mid ‘60s Ford was struggling to keep up with the muscle cars and drag racers coming from Dodge, Plymouth, and Pontiac. To get back in the game, Ford created a limited edition, experimental, drag racing only version of the Fairlane. This was the 1964 Thunderbolt. The big engine that Ford put in the Galaxie at the time did not give that big, heavy car enough power to get up and go race with the other muscle cars, so they crammed it into the smaller Fairlane.

In the midst of the 639 episodes of The Simpsons that have been aired, there was also The Simpsons Movie. While many Simpson-heads look forward to watching an epic marathon of these, let’s take a look back at some of the iconic vehicles that were so lovingly drawn into the legend that is The Simpsons.

DeLorean DMC-12: If you thought the DeLorean DMC-12 was only in Back to the Future, then you missed the 19th episode in the 7th season. Troy McClure, voiced by legendary funnyman Phil Hartman, drove a DeLorean DMC-12. The car injured Police Chief Wiggums and it was used when McClure married Selma.

In the 1970s and 1980s, louvers were all the rage. Cars like the Datsun 260Z, Ford Mustang, and Honda Civic SI were popular choices to have louvers added to the rear windows. While matte black louvers added a tough look, they also served a functional purpose. They did not add to the aerodynamics of the car, but they did help keep the hatchbacks cooler in the sun.

Leonardo Dicaprio is one of the most talented modern-day actors. Since he plays major roles in many period-piece films, he often finds himself being able to enjoy driving classic vehicles. Interestingly, the very first car he ever owned was a Ford Mustang from the 1960s. Moving many years into the future, he now is personally involved in environmental issues and he personally drives cars that are environmentally friendly. Despite the fact that he is such an environmentally friendly actor, many of the vintage cars he was fortunate enough to drive were anything but environmentally friend. These are a few of the more notable cars:

Ford at the Le Mans Race The Le Mans race is the oldest continuous car race and has been going on since 1923, other than 1936 and the years between 1940 and 1948 due to World War II. Racing teams keep their car going for 24 hours as drivers drive prestigious and fast cars for two hours at a time. They rest for two hours and then get back to it again. Most recent changes have changed the teams from two drivers to three drivers. The race has been held in Le Mans, France and is always scheduled in the summer. Over the nearly 90 years of racing, the majority of winning automobiles have been made by European carmakers. In the first ten years of the race, the majority of winners were cars made by Bentley or Alfa Romeo. In the 1950s, the majority of winners were manufactured by Ferrari or Jaguar. The winners seemed to flip-flop between cars made in Italy and in the UK, until the late-1960s, when Ford GT40 models were back-to-back winners for four straight years. The Ford GT40 was the first American-made car to win the Le Mans. After the four Ford GT40 wins, the only other American-made entry was a McLaren F1 GTR in 1995. The first year that the Ford GT40 won, it did not just win, but a GT40 finished in first, second, and third place. The winning drivers in 1966 included Bruce McLaren a driver from New Zealand and Chris Amon. The following year, AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney took first, with McLaren’s team coming up in fourth. In 1968, only one Ford GT40 finished in the top 10 and it was raced by Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi. In its final year of racing, the 1969 winning team included Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver. A second Ford GT40 finished in third place that year. Interestingly, two of the GT40 drivers, AJ Foyt and Jacky Ickx, were some of the most successful drivers in the history of the Le Mans races. Foyt won three times, which was exactly how many times he participated in the race. Ickx won six times.

As a car fan, I enjoy learning about the significance of the names that cars are given. Many names have interesting etymologies. From the Corvette being named after swiftly moving Navy ships to the Shelby Cobra being named after a dangerous snake, many car makers get the names just right. Then there are cars like the Plymouth Duster, Ford Probe, and the Chevy Nova. These cars have names that are easy to spell, easy to say, but they have no sense of coolness at all.

Malaise: This word comes from the combination of French words mal- and aise (which translates to ease). This word generally means a sense of being uneasy or feeling out of sorts. It usually involves the beginning of an illness or feeling less that healthy. The term “malaise” has come to designate the decade of cars produced between 1973 and 1983.

As car collectors get younger, their car awareness does not include newsworthy events that predate the 1980s. This means that the newest car collectors do not know much, if anything, about the events surrounding the Ford Pinto. Since very few people drove the Pinto after the recalls in the 1970s, young car collectors have never seen them on the roads. There are not any celebrities who currently drive Pintos so they are not discussed on celebrity blogs. It’s almost as if the Ford Pinto has been successfully buried by those who do not want to show the flaws of the earlier days in the automotive industry.

There is something magical about the cars that were sold between World War I and World War II. The “pre-war” look was heavy, but aerodynamic, masculine, but rather sexy, too. This art-deco look also known as the “coffin cars” will never be replicated and the rock-solid construction was and still is, second-to-none. There were some pre-war styles that did reappear during the post-war era, but as soon as the automakers got their production capabilities back to normal, their cars began to take on a different look. These are a few of the choice pre-war cars that define the era: